Chapter 1: Chapter 1: God's Blessed
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Rikuo was dreaming. It was kind of obvious from the lack of beeping sound of the heartbeat monitor. And Riku wondered, of all dreams, why was he dreaming of floating? Had he finally lost it? Did he die in his sleep and now was in purgatory? Was there even such a thing? Rikuo didn't know the answer to any of his questions.
But that was fine wasn't it? If he was indeed dead then Riku would be very much glad. At least his parents would find relief, instead of holding onto a false hope that Riku could recover. He closed his eyes with a sigh. He wanted to rest now and maybe when he woke up, he'd be in heaven.
"..ku.."
"...iku.."
"Riku…"
Bright teal colored eyes snapped open at the sound.He was surrounded by a seemingly endless darkness with only a barest hint of light coming from the little tear at the top.Rikuo couldn't tell exactly how far it was from him, the time and space seemed so distorted in this dream. Hints of words filtered in from the tear, echoing through the dark. The blonde had to strain his ears to just barely catch what it said.
"Rikuo…" it said.
" Come with me," another whispered.
"Become mine" the last murmured.
A hand peeked out from the tear in space and reached towards him. It was obviously for him to take. Rikuo hesitated, the tear was apparently much closer to him than he thought.
He wondered what might happen if he was to take that hand. Maybe it was an angel that came to take him to heaven. If he took that hand, might he actually die?
But he doesn't want to die, not yet. There were still a great number of things he still wanted to do. So he won't take that hand just yet. Someday when he can't go on maybe but not today, not now.
As if it knew what he had decided on, the tear let out a loud screech causing Rikuo to cover his ears. Right before his eyes the hand started multiplying as if to try and grab him. It was a horrifying sight to say at least but no matter how much it multiplied the hand was not able to reach him.
The tears continued to screech but Rikuo could only watch in horrified fascination. He saw a small black ribbon flowing around them in the endless space. It was barely noticeable and he heard another voice, this time much gentler, overlapping with the screech.
"It's time to wake up, darling."
And then he woke up.
Rikuo pushed himself up to sit on his bed while the heart monitor beeped in the background undisturbed. The sun was only beginning to rise over the horizon. He wondered…
"What was that dream?"
Shaking his head, Riku's gaze wandered into and out of the window. In front of the hospital was a small black figure. Since his room was quite far from the entrance, he couldn't really see that well. Maybe the person was waiting for someone and or was just passing by. 'Well whatever-' Rikuo shrugged and laid back down to sleep.
'It isn't my business anyway.'
...
A boy with shoulder length dark hair stood in front of a dreadfully quiet hospital, glaring at it with azure, blue eyes. The stench of death particularly oozed from the building. It was so disgusting that it made his empty stomach turn. But he couldn't just leave without finishing the mission.
'Ugh.. '
'Just my luck…' Shuuji thought and tapped the serpent wrapped around his neck. Small black head poked out of his shirt collar, forked tongue tasting the air around.
"This place stinks~."
"I know Jor."
"Good, at least your nose works~."
Apparently satisfied that he let his opinion known, the snake went back to sleep around his neck. The 15 years old held back a sigh less he offended the pit viper. Jor could complain for hours and Shuuji actually needed the damm serpent for this mission.
Without further ado, the dark haired boy walked into the hospital, passing by the still awake guards and the nurses. They didn't pay him any attention, only focused on their individual tasks like the boy wasn't even there.
Shuuji smiled slightly and slipped into the ground level of the hospital, towards the morgue. Best way to identify a corrupted spirit was to look into the bodies of its victims. Thus checking out the morgue should always be at the top of any exorcist's list.
On the ground level of the building was a warm yellow hall with several doors. Shuuji didn't have the time to check every one of them if he was to capture the onryo. So he simply opened the door with the strongest scent of death and it did not fail him. Behind the door was a cold morgue full of stench. Though surprisingly or unsurprisingly depending on how one looked at it, there was no spirit or yurei of the departed.
This fact alone crossed off few of the possible spirits out of Shuuji's list on what onryo it could be.
Taking a deep breath, the teenage exorcist stepped into the chill riden room. Immediately the feeling of regret and emptiness flooded Shuuji. It hangs in the air around, overwhelming any soul sensitive enough. But this was another clue that the blue eyed teen couldn't write off.
Whatever onryo had taken over this place, it was something that hunted and ate the souls of its victim. It most likely tricked the victim into accepting to leave their body willingly. Which meant Shuuji can cross out many of the onryo out which only left 4 possible corrupted spirits and only other way to find out which one it is was to find it's next victim.
Shuuji picked out the medical files on the desk beside the door. He would need those to see if he could find a pattern. He only needed the files from the last two week, so Shuuji sorted and placed the unnecessary ones back on the desk. Then he turned his attention back to the five left in his hands and started reading.
"Fukushima Ryunosuke, age 78, dementia. His heart failed while asleep."
He flipped the page.
"Hitoshi Sumire, age 9, brain pressure. Had a seizure on the playground."
"Sunataro Atsumu, age 65, died of heart failure on the surgical table."
"Miyamura Miyako, age 89. Died of old age, passed away during sleep."
"Wakatoshi Ritsuka, 32, had fatal insomnia, died due to an overdose of sleeping pills."
With a sigh, Shuuji closed and placed the files back in place.
"This is something at least, only 3 possibilities left." he mumbled. The seizure girl probably had nothing to do with the onryo. This meant the onryo only fed 3-4 times since coming to the hospital and should be nearing another feeding soon. Which was opportunate for him, hopefully he could exercise the thing before it killed another human.
'Before that… '
Shuuji took out a small black marker from his pocket and started drawing a small lyre. Around it he drew a circle with eight arrows pointed outwards at different runic symbols.
Algiz for protection, Eihwaz for stability, Wunjo for success, Sowulo strength, Mannaz for mankind, Laguz for renewal, Dagaz for awareness and Hagalaz for destruction of evil.
Once done, Shuuji tapped Jor awake from his slumber.
"Drop off your venom please."
The viper hissed in annoyance and slid from his neck to his hand and opened his(Jor's) mouth, dropping the deadly venom into the middle of the symbol. The moment the first drop of venom hit the exorcism circle, it glowed and burned into the floor. Suddenly, the room felt lighter, there was no stench of death, no overwhelming feeling of regret, nothing negative remained inside the morgue chamber.
With nothing weighing down on him, Shuuji breathed in a sigh of relief. However, he couldn't allow himself to linger here further. The teenager still had work to do and couldn't relax just yet. He stood up, allowing Jor to wrap around his neck once more, and the young exorcist left the morgue. This time to hunt down the person closest to crossing over the veil.
May God bless his journey forward.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone